Motivate students is one of the biggest challenges that teachers have to face, in general and in particular in
programming courses. In this article two techniques, aimed at supporting the teaching of programming, are
discussed: program animation, and automatic evaluation of programs. Based on the combination of these
techniques and their currently available tools, we will describe two possible approaches to increase
motivation and improve the success. The conclusions of a first experiment conducted in the classroom will
be presented. PEP, a Web-based tool that implements one of the approaches proposed, will be introduced.

This paper addresses the verification of software components in the context of their orchestration to build
cloud-based scientific applications with high performance computing requirements. In such a scenario, com-
ponents are often supplied by different sources and their cooperation rely on assumptions of conformity with
their published behavioral interfaces. Therefore, a faulty or ill-designed component, failing to obey to the
envisaged behavioral requirements, may have dramatic consequences in practice. Certifier components, intro-
duced in this paper, implement a verification as a service framework and are able to access the implementation
of other components and verify their consistency with respect to a number of functional, safety and liveness
requirements relevant to a specific application or a class of them. It is shown how certifier components can be
smoothly integrated in HPC Shelf , a cloud-based platform for high performance computing in which different
sorts of users can design, deploy and execute scientific applications.

Currently, the healthcare system is one of the main pillars of any society. Given the economic crisis in Portugal and poor healthcare system in need of profound improvements, the need to increase the efficiency of resource management and services is imperative. With the increasing use of Business Intelligence (BI) in organisations and the proven effectiveness of this, comes the desire to use BI in healthcare, specifically in the healthcare of Misericórdia. One of the purposes of this article is to present the results obtained through the development of the dissertation whose theme is "Prototyping of Business Intelligence component to support the management in the health area of a Misericórdia". So, in this work, some concepts associated with the use of BI in Misericórdias were addressed, and the Pervasive BI architecture of the developed solution was designed. It is also important to emphasise that the solution presented is pervasive, available anywhere at any time. Furthermore, a set of metrics were developed and the data presented in the form of dashboards, for later use by the users. Through this work, it was possible to gather all the data into a single structure (Data Mart), to identify a set of aspects that can be improved and to have a generalised view of the state of operation of the organisation, as far as health care is concerned.

The correct classification of human skeleton from video is a key issue for the recognition of human actions
and behavior. In this paper, we present a computational system for a passive detection of human star skeleton
from raw video. The overall system is based on two main modules: segmentation and star skeleton detection.
For each module, several computer vision methods were adjusted and tested under a comparative analysis that
used a challenging video dataset (e.g., different daylight and weather conditions). The obtained results show
that our system is capable of detecting human skeletons in most situations.

The size of the aging population has been increasing over the last years, leading to a search for solutions that
can increase the quality of life of the elderlies. One of the main means of action is focused on their physical
activity. A non-sedentary life can help in disease prevention and disability reduction, leading to an independent
living with quality. Moreover, the practice of physical exercise can decrease fall risks and its consequences.
Furthermore, it is desirable that the solutions can be accessed by anyone, with a low inherent cost. The Boccia
game is a good way to promote physical activity to the elderly, due to its simplicity and easy adaptability to
the physical limitations of the elderly. Following this trend, this paper presents iBoccia, a novel framework
to monitor elderly while playing Boccia game, through wearable sensors, Mio Fuse band and pandlet (inertial
sensor), and a non-wearable device, Kinect camera. Several performance metrics are expected to be measured
during the gameplay. Using the pandlet we calculate wrist rotation angles and force applied during ball throw,
using the Kinect we recognize facial expressions and from the Mio Fuse band we retrieve heart rate.

The Information Security, nowadays, faces new threats such as the process of massive information in which are applied artificial intelligence techniques with the goal of predicting and classify our actions. Thus, knowledge about our behaviour, likes, dislikes, among others, leads us to consider that Knowledge Security appears has the natural evolution of Information Security. On the other side of the same coin we have new possibilities to monitor health, the wellbeing and abnormal symptoms, reactions to treatments, alert for insulin insufficiency, pacemaker malfunction, among others. Child abuse cases, it is a subject of most importance in our society, although, these cases are, from suspicion to signalization, difficult to identify since strong evidences are needed. Typically, health care services deal with these cases in an earlier stage with evidences based on the emergency diagnosis, but, yet, not sufficient and with lack of information, thus, further analysis is needed from experts’ teams. The main goal of these teams is to protect the child from the possibility of occurrence of more abuses. We have developed a prototype that automatically could predict and alert to situations that could be needed to use the measure of the protection of the child, Using digitalised child abuse processes, knowledge management and artificial intelligence techniques with 83% of true positives. In this research, we addressed both sides of the coin, Knowledge Security and the benefits of the Knowledge Discovery defining, in our opinion, the fourth generation of Knowledge Management - Value Creation and Knowledge.

Information systems and technologies (IST) are the essence of up-to date organizations, and changes in this
field are occurring at an uncontrollable pace, interrupting traditional business models and forcing
organisations to implement new models of business. Social media tools represent a subset of these
technologies that contribute to digital transformation (DT) of organizations and which are already used within
organizational training contexts. However, the adoption of social media tools, by itself, does not guarantee
such a transformation; changes in the organization’s culture and behaviour are also needed. Taking advantage
of the DT technology enablers and realising the need for updated approaches to address organizational
workers’ training, we propose a model to guide organizational training within DT. The model, called Training
of Organizational Workers (ToOW), addresses the 2nd layer of the mobile Create, Share, Document and
Training (m_CSDT) framework formerly described. The advantages foreseen for the model usage are two-fold.
On the one hand, the model acknowledges the crucial role that an organization plays in promoting a
culture of continuous learning/training of its employees; on the other hand, the model provides guidance on
setting up the training strategies and activities, as well as on the monitoring of training results achieved, which
are measured according to the performance metrics considered within the organizational strategy.

Researchers have been setting their focus on improving the quality of life of the human being, especially at large urban centres. However, problems like crowding, traffic accidents or crime are still to be unscrambled. Indeed, one may use the amazing technological evolution the world is experiencing to mitigate such problems, focusing the Internet of Things in the creation of truly Smart Cities. Hence, this work intends to study and analyse relevant areas of intervention in Smart Cities, with special focus on the efforts being made to enhance the safety of those more vulnerable at the road, known as Vulnerable Road Users. Undeniably, one’s review shows that insufficient focus is being given to the use of the Internet of People to address this challenge, renouncing the possibility of access information such as position, pace, and physical and emotional conditions of the user. It becomes now imperative to shift the paradigm and proceed towards the Internet of People.

This paper presents a study developed in the framework of a training course for teachers of STEM areas on
the JuxtaLearn process. This process, divided into eight steps, aims to improve student understanding of
threshold concepts by planning, editing and sharing creative videos in CLIPIT. CLIPIT is an online platform
for collaborative learning designed to support the JuxtaLearn process. We describe the training of eight
teachers, and the subsequent supervision of one of them, a math teacher, made to understand how the
JuxtaLearn process was applied with her students. We collect qualitative data through the observation of the
teacher's work. Also, quantitative data through initial and final quizzes applied to the students, to understand
their level of understanding of the tricky topic, automatic records on CLIPIT and a satisfaction
questionnaire applied to the eight teachers to assess the ease of use with the CLIPIT. The results show that
teachers were able to put into practice the eight steps of the JuxtaLearn process and suggest that students’
engagement in creating creative videos helped them in overcoming tricky math topics.

The ETL processes can be seen as typical data-oriented workflows composed of dozens of granular tasks that
are responsible for the integration of data coming from different data sources. They are one of the most
important components of a data warehousing system, strongly influenced by the complexity of business
requirements, their changing, and evolution. To facilitate the planning and ETL implementation, a set of
patterns specially designed to map standard ETL procedures is presented. They provide a simpler and
conceptual perspective that can enrich to enable the generation of execution primitives. Generic models can
be built, simplifying process views and providing methods for carrying out the acquired expertise to new
applications using well-proven practices. This work demonstrates the fundaments of an ETL pattern-based
approach for ETL development, its configuration and validation trough a set of Alloy specifications used to
express its structural constraints and behaviour.